Have a Good NEWS

Of course there is no excuse for wanton criminality - as the prime minister, the archbishop of Canterbury and the leader of the opposition all said in a dutiful chorus and which was echoed afterwards by many of the repentant looters themselves in the magistrates' courts. But that does not help us much. We need to know why, and we need to get beyond invocations to better policing, tougher penalties and better parenting, however much they may be needed as part of the solution. The emergent consensus is that there was not even a higher political or social purpose behind what happened: it was mindless, feral youths and gangs - their members unparented - looting for the flat-screen TVs and trainers to which they wrongly felt entitled. It was an abysmal new social low.

But there were also dimensions (Alex and his "droogs") alongside Lord of the Flies

This should come as no surprise. Laura Johnson, of course, from a £ 1m house in Orpington, or Alexis Bailey, a classroom assistant in an elementary school, were apparently favored by the looters caught. Just as baby boomers, rich and poor alike, were part of a larger common life experiences are so today 's under 30s.

The Unicef ??report that set in 2007 Britain bottom of 21 industrialized countries in the way their children are treated not just single out child poverty as a cause of the problem - other factors include the factory-like education and training system, poor relationships with family and friends, low subjective well-being and the risks of everyday life.

In addition, image private shopping centers to collect any public place for children, insufficient and now includes youth clubs, routinely by the police, simply because less than 25 put into question, and then ordered to disperse, even if only two of them allow - all these impact on an entire age group. The dutiful can not riots young hard work for their skills, qualifications and training. But even they could ask for to be awarded: for what?

The country's stagnant economy. For everyone, young and unhappy in a broad valley to our goods by the misfortune of being trapped birth, what chance is there? Their prospects are vanishing points earned in any way or fair? And the bigger question that hangs over them all - Where is England?

Meanwhile, take with those at the top as much as they can get away. It is simply accepted that the highest tax rate is without purpose, because so many organize their affairs to not pay - even famous knights like Richard Branson or Philip Green, now reportedly considering a portion of its business in Switzerland. There is no word of disapproval of our financial and political elite, but both enjoy knighthoods, and how the Murdochs, privileged access to the top.

This requires a recognition that we examine our society in the round. It all connects. The wellbeing of the top and middle depends on the relative wellbeing and opportunities of those at the bottom. Societies cohere or they perish. England on this score fares astonishingly badly. Our social housing estates are, in Lynsey Hanley's words, vast people lockers. Once in, very few move out. A third of the bottom 10% of wage earners in 2001/2, reports the Work Foundation's Bottom 10 Million programme, were still there in 2008/9. Once unemployed, you are twice as likely to stay unemployed.

Already the police leadership is challenging this narrative; vengeful policing as the arm of a politicised police state but with far fewer resources is doomed to make matters worse. But the rest of us should make common cause. What happened last week was enormous, and it requires a better thought-through response than Mr Cameron's. Of course the unprecedented rapidity and severity of the spending cuts - on everything from educational maintenance allowances to youth clubs and the police - have contributed to the malaise and must make matters worse. But they are not its cause, which runs deeper still.